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"Commentators see an early election as a positive move that will see May's government increase its majority, provide more negotiating power in Brexit talks and decrease the probability of an exit with no European Union trade deal", Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Jason Wong said in a note. The House of Commons can pave the way for an early vote by approving it with a two-thirds majority, or it can defeat the prime minister in a vote of confidence and have that result stand for two weeks.

The Tories have a majority of 330 seats in the House of Commons, compared with 229 Labour seats, 54 for the Scottish National Party, and nine for the Liberal Democrats.

May will also be protected by the vote in the Commons to come: Labour, for one, will vote in favour of an early election, so Jeremy Corbyn and his party can hardly attack her for calling it. "Let us put forward our plans for Brexit and our alternative programs for government and then let the people decide", May said.

She had said in her announcement "there can be no turning back" on Britain's decision to leave the European Union, something she herself had campaigned against before last year's referendum.

Tusk will chair a summit of the other 27 European Union national leaders in Brussels on April 29, where he expects them to agree negotiating guidelines he has proposed.

But the stronger pound helped push Britain's main share index to close down 2.3 percent, its biggest one-day loss since June 27, days after Britain voted to leave the EU.

Mr Cameron said she made a "brave - and right - decision", wishing the Conservative candidates the best via Twitter.

But May said Tuesday she had "reluctantly" changed her mind. She had previously said she wouldn't go to the polls early but now says political opposition has hindered the exit and that a decisive victory would strengthen the government's negotiating position. Some Britons questioned on social media whether they wanted to cast yet another ballot less than a year after the June referendum and two years after they voted in the last parliamentary poll.

Her spokesman said she had the backing of her top team of ministers and had informed Queen Elizabeth of her plans on Monday.

Sterling jumped as high as Dollars 1.2772, its strongest since December 14 and just shy of its highest in six months, as investors viewed the election as lessening political uncertainty and making it more likely that Britain could maintain some kind of preferential access to the single European market.

But what about contests called by incumbents who have taken over at Number 10 without first winning a general election as party leader?

Rather than helping the country unite, the election could widen divisions within the United Kingdom. The first risk is that her own party could come across during the electoral campaign as being as divided as Labour is on Europe, thereby ruining Mrs May's carefully calculated image of steely determination.

"She's taking people for granted already and voters never like that".

The SNP won 56 of Scotland's 59 seats at the last general election (2015) and the party feels optimistic about performing a clean sweep next time around.

The British currency, which had weakened before the announcement, was up by more than a cent against the dollar.

The pound rose 0.1 percent against the US dollar after the announcement, to 1.257, recovering from a 0.4 percent drop an hour earlier.

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